The amount of stock settlements here plunged 27 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, largely due to a slump in the global stock market, data showed Wednesday.

In the January-June period, a total of 203.9 trillion won ($156 billion) worth of stock settlements were made through the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), down 27.3 percent from a year ago, according to the data. The tally also shrank 11.6 percent from six months earlier.

The KSD said stock settlements were on a decline since the second half of 2021.

Over the same period, bond settlements dropped 1.3 percent on-year to 3,446 trillion won.

The decline came amid uncertainties in the global stock market.

Investors turned risk-averse against the rising inflation pressure that fanned concerns about aggressive monetary tightening, in addition to the global energy crunch and supply bottleneck stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Last week, the Bank of Korea delivered an unprecedented 0.5 percentage-point rate hike in its benchmark seven-day repo rate to 2.25 percent, citing the need to combat inflation. (Yonhap)